PORTLAND, Ore. — 20-year-old Caitlin Plese just graduated from Portland State with a 3.9 cumulative GPA in criminology and criminal justice, a little young to be completing her degree but not unheard of.
What's really unusual is that the 5'9" goalkeeper on the Viking women's soccer team has three years of eligibility left and plans to complete a master's degree in criminology and criminal justice during the rest of her playing career as a Viking.
And after playing only 40-plus minutes last season, fifth-year head coach Laura Schott expects her to be in the thick of a hot competition with Angela Haluska to be the team's starting keeper.
"Caitlin is very mature and that shows in how she trains and approaches athletics. She decided early what she wanted to do when she graduated and when she makes up her mind, she just does it," said Schott, who recruited Plese out of Enumclaw High School, about an hour and a half southeast of Seattle.
That early decision led her to enter the state of Washington's Running Start program which allowed her to take community college classes for which she earned high school and community college credit during her last two years of high school. She entered PSU two years ago with both a high school diploma and an AA degree, making her an instant academic junior.
"I was lucky in that I knew early what I wanted to be. Most of my high school friends were still trying to figure that out when we graduated," Plese said.
Getting to that point was challenging.
"I'd take classes from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Then, I did homework until 3 p.m. In the fall, soccer began at 3, then maybe there'd be club soccer and I wouldn't get home before 10," she recalled.
Plese started playing soccer when she was seven. "My parents wanted us (she and her twin sister Kelly, a competitive cyclist studying atmospheric science at the University of Washington) to get into organized sports, rather than just running around outdoors all the time," she recalled.
Why soccer? She remembers watching a Manchester United vs. Chelsea soccer match on television (she remains a Manchester United fan to this day) and then there was the U.S. Women's World Cup title with Brandi Chastain tearing off her shirt in celebration at the end.
So, she joined a local club around her home at the foot of the Cascade Mountains, about an hour off I-5.
She likes soccer "because it's a players game. In football and basketball, you run set plays. But soccer is split second decisions. I played softball and basketball, but they weren't fast enough for me."
She's played goalkeeper most of her career.
"Being a keeper is fun. You're reading players, you have to be on your toes all the time. When you're diving to get the ball, it's an adrenalin rush. They say you have to be a little crazy to play goal and I won't argue with that," she said.
It also can be dangerous.
"People run at you and you have to dive at their feet," she explained.
Once in a high school match she got kicked in the face. "I'm told I straightened myself up, didn't say anything to anyone and played the second half. But when I finished the game, I couldn't remember anything that happened in the second half."
Plese knew she wanted to play soccer in college.
"My idea has always been for soccer to help me pay for school," she said. And after being named first-team all-conference three times, the conference's defensive MVP her senior year and twice the team's MVP (not to mention leading her high school to the 2008 WIAA State Tournament for the first time in school history), she attracted a fair amount of interest.
"In high school you send out e-mails to college coaches saying you'd be interested in playing for them, and I sent one to Laura as one of many. I really didn't know much about Portland State," she said.
Schott was interested and contacted her high school coach. Plese also had contacts with Western Washington, Washington and Boise State, and ended up deciding between North Carolina Greenbriar and the Vikings.
The more she looked at PSU, the better she liked it. She liked that it was three and a half hours from home ("far enough that my parents aren't hovering over me, but close enough that I can go home if something happens") and that it had a strong program in her chosen field.
Her parents also can watch her play. In fact, "they come to all the home matches. They like to support the team whether I'm playing or not."
Plese wants to start her career in local law enforcement and said the highlight of her college career so far has been an internship with the Oregon State Police this summer.
"I had so much fun. I had the internship in the spring, and then the lieutenant OK'd me to stay for the summer," said Plese. She spent time with the first response and wildlife team checking licenses, and worked on a major crime, riding with a detective.
She views law enforcement as a "helping profession" because "if you do your job, you are making the community safer. Also, the public doesn't see this part of it, but there are a lot of little moments where you can say 'I helped this person'." For example, she worked last summer with an Oregon State Trooper who saved a person's life following the tragic Clackamas Town Center shooting by applying first aid.
Plese isn't immune to some of the potential excitement either, recounting "flying down I-5 in hot pursuit with our lights and siren going as the traffic parted in front of us."
Still, she's hoping to focus on crime mapping and crime analysis with an eye toward maybe looking at federal possibilities with the FBI, U.S. Marshals or Drug Enforcement Agency.
"I'll start patrolling, but maybe do analysis later. If I get into a federal job and can make things more efficient…I have an analytical side…which can be a drawback because you can overanalyze things (especially on the soccer field)," she said.
And that's one of her soccer goals for this season.
"This year, I'm expecting consistency from myself. You can't have highs and lows... I may have had some of those in the past. I like to be a perfectionist and you can't be one in goal. You have to have the ability to let things go. You have to be ready to take their next shot," Plese said.
Her expectation for the team this year is to "win the regular season championship, host the tournament and then go to the NCAA. We have a lot of returning players and a good crop of incoming players. We were disappointed last year. We didn't accomplish what we wanted and that will be a great motivator this year."
As to who will be the Viking's starting goal keeper this year… "she and Angela are both doing well. Training will determine a lot about who starts this fall. They both played a lot in the spring. It'll be a spirited competition," Schott said.
